The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

The one thing you never talk about while you're in the Scholomance is what you'll do when you get out - not even the richest enclaver would tempt fate that way.

But that impossible dream has somehow come true for El and her classmates. And what's more, she didn't even have to become the monstrous dark witch she's prophesised to become to make it happen. Instead of killing enclavers, she saved them, and now the world is safe for all wizards. Peace and harmony have enveloped all the enclaves of the world.

Just kidding.

Instead, someone else has picked up the project of destroying enclaves in El's stead, and everyone she saved is at risk again with a full-scale enclave war on the horizon. And so, the first thing El needs to do after miraculously escaping the Scholomance, is to turn straight around and find a way back in.

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Wow. What a way to end a trilogy.

First of all; do not start with this book. Start with A Deadly Education, then read The Last Graduate, and then you can start this one. This book picks up literally from the last sentence of Graduate, so you will be very confused if you start here.

Now you're thinking,  "Is it worth reading two books before I even start this one?" To that, I say "first of all, why haven't you read them already? And secondly, yes, it's absolutely worth it. Naomi's worldbuilding is amazing, and several things we thought we knew about that world are turned completely on their heads this time around.

Some of the timing felt odd - we'd get a chapter covering a day, then it seemed as though several more days slipped away in the space of a few lines - but that's what happens when you're so deeply in the character's head, especially when that character is (completely understandably) disassociating from the trauma of what's going on. I loved that El never lost her sense of humour throughout the whole thing; I don't have a copy to hand so I can't get the exact quote, but there's a part where a character is acting wary of her, "thus proving he had the observational skills of a dead stick" which I'm going to start using in my every day life.

I can't decide if I want this to be televised or not. On one hand, yes, of course, it would be amazing; on the other hand, so much of it happens in El's thoughts and reactions, I think it would be very difficult to accurately represent it on screen. It would probably have to be changed quite a bit.

Finally, a friend told me this was a great description, so I'm closing with it; if you want a series that's Harry Potter if Hogwarts was trying to kill you all the time (even more than it tried to kill Harry anyway) this is exactly the series for you. Give it a go, and join us waiting desperately to see what Naomi is going to write next. I can't wait for it.

The Golden Enclaves is available now.